Awards, Prizes, and Neil Leifer’s Knockouts

Today’s post is all about awards and prizes and who won what, such as—

Maja Daniels wins Getty Images’ Portrait Prize

Out of 721 photographers vying for the $10,000 prize plus a solo exhibition in Paris, Maja Daniels hit the jackpot, reports BJP. She won Getty Images’ inaugural Contour Portrait Prize.

Daniels’s winning project ‘Mady and Monette’ is about twins who are Parisian peripatetic performers. Visit her website for some of the images.

Tim Hetherington wins the 2013 McCrary Award for Excellence

Tim Hetherington was a brave and celebrated war photographer who died in a combat zone in Libya in 2011. Yesterday, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society posthumously awarded him its McCrary Award for Excellence, reports BJP.

Hetherington was a Magnum Photos lensman and had distinguished himself in documentaries and photo books, besides on the front. An exhibition of his work is being hosted by Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery.

Frank Gaylord wins $684,844

This 600 Grand Award won by Frank Gaylord is not a prize for a photographer but a lawsuit’s ‘winnings’ for a sculptor!

However, a photographer and a photo is at the centre of it all. Marine John Alli took a photograph of Gaylord’s Korean War Memorial sculpture which was used by the United States Postal Service on a stamp, reports Michael Zhang on PetaPixel.

This improper usage of a ‘war’ memorial photograph led to a lawsuit and after the initial ‘skirmishes’ Gaylord’s lawyer took out the ‘heavy artillery’ and won the 600K ‘spoils of war’ for his client.

Neil Leifer wins . . . by knockout!

Sports Photographer Neil Leifer has won an award or two so he belongs in this post. The featured story is not about him winning another prize, though. In a particularly fine edition of Darkroom, we get to see Leifer discussing his photos while the Sports Museum holds a retrospective of his work.

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool sports fan, you know who Neil Leifer is but if the name doesn’t ring a bell for you, this photo will – guaranteed. Leifer took it, as he did this work of art the night a big-talkin’ ‘Lip’ put a ‘Big Cat’ to sleep.